Youngsters display their “Art of Diversity” creations.

Top: Young visitors look into “Why Plants Get Sick.” Bottom: “From DNA to Mice” session draws children to lab work.

The National Cancer Institute at Frederick and Fort Detrick hosted their 12th annual “Take Your Child to Work Day” on July 30 to accommodate employees who could not attend the NIH event in April.

Organized by NCI employees and supported by the Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity Management, the event registered more than 250 children. While learning what their parents do in a day, children participated in a wide variety of exciting career activities—science and non-science related—such as “From DNA to Mice” and the “Traditional and Modern Carpentry Tools.” They experienced cutting-edge technology and learned about important research in sessions such as the ever-popular “Come See What’s Inside.” In that session, a small animal imaging program uses the latest technology to look internally at the progression of tumors in research mice.

In addition, the NIH Diversity Council presented the “Art of Diversity,” which engaged children to discuss and draw their perceptions of diversity as it relates to their own family and NIH. The children’s artwork will be presented in the second annual NIH “A Time for Diversity” held the first week in December 2008 at the Clinical Center.

To read more about NCI’s Take Your Child to Work Day, visit http://kidsday. ncifcrf.gov/.—Pamela Oliver